Lost: On Location (Season 1)
This article is about the Season 1 DVD Extra. For all occurences of this special feature, see disambiguation page: Lost: On Location PandoraX is responsible for this transcription. The following is a special featurette seen on Disc 7 of the Lost: The Complete First Season DVD box set. It is called the "Lost: On Location", and is a look backstage at the production of several episodes in Season 1. ---- The Trouble With Boars boar scenes shown Jack Bender: We found that working with boars is tricky, and they're not... you can only train them so much. And we couldn't bring any quote-end-quote "trained boars" over from the States. It was too expensive. So we thought we'd go local, because there are boars here, which is why they were written in. Jean Higgins: People call them boars, I call them the "island piggies". Laughs It's the Hawaiian version of the boars. shown of Dominic Monaghan trying to get boar to chase him unsuccessfully Jack Bender: And on the day everything's set to go, and we had fences set up for the boars, they were supposed to run from point A to point B, and we got ready to roll, and the boars sniffed around for a little bit, and had no interest in walking, let alone running. Jean Higgins: They only work if you sort of withhold food, and they're a little bit hungry, and they come because of the food. boar in cage shown So, I think what possibly may have happened is that the extras may have been going, "Well, here's a little carrot. And here's a little piece of broccoli." And so, by the time the boars got out, unbeknownst to us, they weren't hungry anymore. on leash shown So, they sort of wandered around, and they really were the least threatening things you've ever seen. Jack Bender: And I looked at the boar trainer, who was the guy who catches them, in the jungle, and I said, "So, they're not moving." He says, "No, I guess they don't want to." I went, "Yeah, are they going to change their boar minds? Or is this it?" He says, "Meh, they're not hungry. Guess they don't want to run." I said, "Now what am I gonna do?" And I thought... so I shot every possible angle of people reacting, and boar's point of view, and I totally winged the scene, and I threw it to Kevin Blank, our visual effects genius, and I said, "Save us." And he created CG boars. cut of Charlie running away, and realistic CG boar chasing In this episode that I'm shooting now, where Sawyer hunts a boar, when they told me I'd be doing another episode that involved a boar, I told them they were kidding, and that they were just trying to drive me insane. And they said, "No, for real." And we actually now have the really big boars from the States. trained boar shown on leash, Jack Bender giving direction to the cameras. Boar handler then gives direction to cameramen and crew, saying someone will put down meat to lure boar out, and crew should stay out of the way. Jack Bender then talks with handler about distance, and sends Josh Holloway running at full speed down the field. In a second take, Josh is running, and the boar follows, out of camera being chased by the handler whipping a small stick in the brush. Jack Bender: It's tough to be a boar. It's not easy. Josh Holloway: breath up against fence Boaring. Laughs No, just kidding. It's fun. I mean, he chased me. And I'm about to put some of that meat in my back pocket and take a ride, because I'm tired to be running back and forth. But that's alright. It's fine. Bender consults again with boar handler, and then tells Josh Holloway he is going to shoot one take with him running and tripping, and one where he is running and the boar knocks into his legs. Boar is then corralled out of truck, and shepherded into the field by handler towards nearly colliding with Josh. Jack Bender then gives Josh further direction on how to react to his senses; split screen with final cut of that scene. Jack Bender: Josh is doing a sensational performance, I think it's going to be really compelling. I think it's got elements that are a little absurdist... of Sawyer falling in the mud and cursing His obsession of sort of reliving his past and of hunting this boar which has somehow wronged him is almost humorous, but the more his character is obsessive and cares about it, the stranger it is, and that paralleling Sawyer's real past story--which is heartbreaking--and we learn more about that in the episode. I think it's gonna be great. Javier Grillo-Marxuach: "House of the Rising Sun" is an important episode, because it's the episode where we're finding the valley, which is the set of caves, a lot of the characters' gonna move there. Jack actually found this valley in the previous episode, "White Rabbit", and this is the episode where people are beginning to make that move out of the beach and getting out of that mentality of being immediate crash survivors and to being sort of citizens of this island to being full time dwellers of this island. of Jack and Kate talking in caves, saying "We don't need to bring the water to the people. We need to bring the people to the water." Javier Grillo-Marxuach: So also, this is also the episode that we find the set, this is also the episode where we find out the story of Sun... of decorator talking to Sun Yunjin Kim: We had a chance to sort of see them fall in love, and then fall out of love. and Jin shown in gazebo scene I think it was really important to see the other side of the story, where it all began, and where it's going, right now. Javier Grillo-Marxuach: Approximately 20% of the episode is flashbacks to their life as a young married couple in Korea... and the weird circumstances that led them to being on this Oceanic flight from Sydney to Australia that landed them on this island. That was a particularly difficult thing, not y'know, only because I don't speak or write Korean, but it was about getting into a whole other cultural head-space. And it was about writing about something that I don't have a huge amount of personal reference for. of Sun talking to Jin as he is handcuffed shown. Daniel Dae Kim: I think the idea that you cannot understand what Jin and Sun are saying is a way of highlighting their "otherness" on the show... and it allows people, and the other characters, to project what they think is going on with them, when they may not really know. shown in bathroom scene talking to Sun, covered in blood. Yunjin Kim: They know what they need to do, especially Jin's character. He needs to know all he needs to do is talk to his wife. But he can't, for so many reasons. That is like the hardest thing to do between a man and a woman. shown trying to explain to Michael that Jin attacked him because of the watch. Harold Perrineau: You know, whenever there are women involved Laughs, and men, there is a lot of tension that goes on, and I think he and I are maybe going to have that tension for a while. Javier Grillo-Marxuach: The episode has a lot of really heavy things happening in it. shown attacking Michael. You know, you have Jin attacking Michael, and there's that whole racial can of worms that that opens, because that's a Korean man attacking a black man, y'know, in some places, that doesn't mean anything, but in the United States, in certain places in America, it means quite a bit. shown accusing Jin's attack of being racist. The island isn't just a physical place, necessarily. It's also that place where... these people who have gone on a wayward path in their lives have come to, and it's a place where they can work these things out. And I think that a lot of the plots that we were doing, and Charlie and his drugs, and other things like that are really about being trapped in a place that forces you to confront your inner demons, that forces you to work out these things that people haven't worked out in their lives before. scenes shown of character interaction So being in this place with all these other strangers, all these other people who don't necessarily get along, becomes a catalyst for all of this baggage that people brought in, becoming something new and something dramatic and something that can be worked through on the island. with Charlie standing on beehive shown. Dominic Monaghan: He gets covered in bees, and gets stung, and kind of makes a couple of big mistakes with the group that he's with. shown panicking and swatting at bees and starting a swarm. I really like insects... so, any opportunity to do that work is always fun. It was cool that they were drone bees, which is the male bee. All the honeybees are female, and the drones don't have any stings, so they can't hurt you. I don't think I would have been that bothered anyway with normal bees, because I pick up bees out of my swimming pool all the time, and I never get too freaked out. Grillo-Marxuach shown with bee handler and a tray of bees. The handler is reassuring him that he can pick them up without getting stung, and Javi is holding a few in his hand, saying "That whole thing with Charlie being afraid of bees is based on my own life experience, so..." Handler is picking them up and teaching him about how docile and robustly built the drones are. Dominic Monaghan: It was fun. It was kind of sticky and messy. They would kind of stick to my arm and to my head, and all that kind of stuff. I really liked it. Ivan Hayden: electronics These are our tracking marks. We're using them so that the computers can simulate the camera action from the live action plate. And when we get them into the post-production place, we can then simulate the camera movement of a virtual environment. So, our CG bees that will be chasing Jack and Kate will not seem to float in the scene; hopefully, they'll look like real CG bees. cut of Jack and Kate stripping with CG bees surrounding them shown Javier Grillo-Marxuach: And then in addition to that, this is the episode that Charlie finally gives up his drugs, where he commits to no longer being a drug addict. shown of Locke confronting Charlie about his addiction Dominic Monaghan: It's an interesting day today for Charlie, because he has an opportunity to have someone to confide in, in Terry O'Quinn's character, Locke, who actually knows he is a drug addict, has found out somehow. I think he's quite intuitive, in a character, anyway. He kind of sets Charlie in a flat spin, because Charlie feels like he has an ally, but it's also someone who can use something against him on the island. But I think it's a nice release for Charlie, and he's looking for his guitar, and finds him, which is a great thing. tells Charlie "Look up." In the script, I think Charlie kind of bursts into tears, but what happened kind of organically with Terry is that we started laughing that the guitar is right above us, but also I was crying at the same time. So it was fun, I think, it'd be a good choice in that for the final cut. of Ethan threatening Charlie shown. Dominic Monaghan: The death sequence, I certainly felt like I had the easiest job out of the three. I hadn't worked with Foxy and Evie for a while, so it was definitely emotionally charged that day. of Charlie "hanging" shown, he jokes "Doing a lot of hanging around today." All that took from me at that point was to completely shut down, you know. I didn't talk to anyone. I was very, very keen to get in the tree as soon as possible, and that was it. They put me in the tree and I just hung there. I just hung limp. I tried to fall asleep, I tried to relax. shown of Kate and Jack finding and cutting down Charlie When everything was going on, when they cut me down from the tree, when Foxy was trying to revive me, when Evie was crying, I really didn't hear any of it. I just was in a semi-meditative state; however close that I could get with someone smacking me in the chest. Michael Vendrell: We were looking for a location that looked really spooky. And Stephen Williams, the director, went with a locations scout, and we found this perfect place. It looked like a cathedral, the way the trees grew up. And we used a cable to harness up Dominic. Thirty years in the business, I've hung many times on a cable, and I have to tell you that Dominic was tough. He was in that harness for a good four hours, five hours. Never complained. Dominic Monaghan: Seeing it on TV was great. We have this thing every week called "the gathering", which is every Wednesday, the main characters, whoever is mainly featured in that episode, host the episode. We all hung around and watched the show together, and me and Foxy and Evie had this little moment afterwards where we kind of chatted and said how great that it felt to be in that scene. Michael Vendrell: I never cried watching an actress before, but I actually came to tears during that scene. I was so moved by how powerful that scene was. scene between Jack and Ethan shown. Michael Vendrell: William and Matthew did their fight. With William's character, Ethan, we know nothing about him. We know he's like an animal--what we did was we made him as feral as possible; no school of combat--karate, kung-fu, etc. coordinator shown directing Matthew and Ethan on how they are to fight And with Matthew it was basically just self-defense, whatever he could do. He didn't do very well against him in the first fight. But the second fight, he got his revenge. But what I do is I talk to the actors and allow them to create the fight. I don't want to step in there and say "This is how we're going to do the fight." What I do is I kind of walk them through the idea I have, and then they'll make the changes according to what they feel the personalities of their characters would go down. Mapother and Matthew Fox discuss and practice their moves in front of the stunt coordinator. Michael Vendrell: The whole key to the action on this show is believability, and that we are caught up in the moment, as though we are with them. With the camera angles, and with the movement of the camera, we have the feeling that we are right there with them. If it looks choreographed, if it looks too Hollywood, then the audience is not going to enjoy it; so to bring them into that moment, to capture that moment, to have the actors create that fight, and so we work real close together with all the actors on that show. Damon Lindelof: "Whatever the Case May Be" was the next sort of logical evolution in the Kate-Sawyer relationship. Evangeline Lilly: When I first read the episode, I thought to myself, "Oh, that's going to be cool, that's going to be fun... show Kate's edgier, tough side." And then, actually shooting that episode, was like somebody had just sent me on a safari, and I was just playing, every day, all day. I was doing scenes in the waterfall, jumping off the cliff, and swimming, and then we were doing underwater scenes, where we were retrieving the case, and then I was running and tackling Sawyer, and then I was robbing a bank... scene clips shown ...It was just like every day was a rush! Damon Lindelof: Kate is a fugitive, y'know. Here's this person who we sort of y'know, been watching now, for twelve hours, and kind of grown to love, and grown affectionate with... and by the way, we just wanted to remind you that she's a fugitive. robbery scene shown with Kate holding the gun, shooting Jason in the leg She is not all those things. She is capable of being violent, and methodical, and duplicitous, and in fact, in many ways, she's actually a lot worse than Sawyer. If she's got her mind set on something, she's going to do whatever she has to do in order to achieve it. shown forcing bank manager to open box Jack Bender: Part of the trick of that was balancing Evie's performance, so that she appeared to be a girl that, at the beginning was really trying to get a loan from this bank manager, and to photograph her so that the audience believed that that's who she really was. When in fact, we learn in the episode, as always, Kate has another card up her sleeve. of Jack requesting key from Kate, revealing that he knows her trick to distract him with the wallet. Damon Lindelof: And that episode, I think, the audience became confused for the first time in the series... about this little plane. She goes through all these moves to get it out of a safety deposit box, and then she goes through all these moves to get the same plane out of this attache case, which is currently on the island. shown admitting to Jack that it belonged to the man she loved and killed. The audience doesn't know what that means, so it's very hard for them to glom onto something and understand it. The show has always walked that fine line, between mystery and clarity. By my own admission, and certainly J.J.'s, you're going to have to 'fall off the high-wire' every once in a while, but then you get back up, and hopefully, you've learned from the experience. of Boone coming to Shannon & Bryan's house. Carlton Cuse: We decided it was sort of time to tell something about Shannon and Boone, and their lives. We knew that Boone, from his past behavior, was very possessive of Shannon. And we thought, maybe it'd be interesting for the audience to discover that there was more to their relationship than just mere, sort of... possessive brotherly interest. Ian Somerhalder: I get a call from Shannon, and she's the 'damsel in distress', and I go to save her...Grace, on the side, in high pitched fake voice says, "Help! Help me!" ...willingly, full of stupidity... scene with Bryan shown I go to Sydney to get her, and basically, get there, and she sets me up... she sets me up for money. Maggie Grace: attitude My money. Ian Somerhalder: Not necessarily her money... it's family money. Maggie Grace: It was my money. Which I got none of! Ian Somerhalder: Her logic. Could have just asked! Carlton Cuse: As we started working out this island story, we would revisit the idea of the Monster, and we had sort of been placed narratively with Locke, where Boone had sort of become his acolyte. We had to do a story where Boone had to shed his obsession with Shannon in order to sort of move forward, in terms of his relationship with Locke. We came up with this idea of this vision quest, as a way for Locke to provide Boone a task. To really explore the nature of his relationship with his sister. of Boone tied up, reaching for the knife So, during this vision quest, she appears to be attacked and killed by the Monster. Maggie Grace: That was really fun! I mean, I was warned before I read the script, Jack came up to me, and he was like, "On page-such-and-such, it kind of looks like you're gonna die. Just wanna warn you, that this is the story, and it all works out. You're still gonna be here." Every time I read that episode, though, every page that I'd turn, I'd be like "Oh my God! Oh my God!" Ian Somerhalder: So basically, Locke knocks me out and puts a hallucinogen on my head, and I hallucinated running through the jungle, thinking that Shannon died. Carlton Cuse: And he realizes that it's all a dream, but in experiencing Shannon's death, Boone had a chance to get in touch with his most primal feelings about his sister, and he felt relief, and it was a really important and revelatory moment for that character, because he was then able to come to terms with her in a way that he never had before. asks a freaked out Boone "How did it feel when she died?", and he answers, "I felt relieved." Ian Somerhalder: He's a young guy. I mean, he's running a big corporation. And I think he had a lot of responsibility, and that was sort of what kept him going. bloodied body shown in Boone's arms Maggie Grace: And actually, shooting the whole death sequence, the whole sequence with the blood in the water, and the whole, don't look now, trek through the jungle... it was great, because our make-up artist, Steve, did the most beautiful job. And I had like basically, a tracheotomy, and a piece of my shoulder missing... injuries shown... you could see like the layers of blood and flesh, it was great, and there was like a blood pump, I mean, a whole body suit. shown joking around with crew, who yanks off 'her right arm' (fake) Also, the part where I got grabbed, was really fun, because I got to do my own stunt. And um, they had me in a whole body harness--I was on this pulley, and once I got up in the top, it takes a while for them to yell "Cut!" and everybody to stop what they're doing, and put me back down... so in the meantime, I get to fly like Peter Pan or something. Laughs Ian Somerhalder: And then we have a very interesting moment in the hotel, coming back, which makes us... why we hate each other so much on the island. Maggie Grace: Y'know, we uh, we just keep it in the family. Ian Somerhalder: Absolutely. Maggie Grace: I mean, Ian's Southern, he can understand that. Ian Somerhalder: Absolutely, I normally do it both laugh Carlton Cuse: We kind of came up with the idea that they were unrelated stepsiblings, who on one night, had an actual romantic encounter. And that became the big twist and reveal for the backstory in our episode. scene shown of Shannon talking to Boone after they spent the night together. Maggie Grace: I don't think you can fall a whole lot lower than being sort of as calculated, and self-destructive towards the people that you love... than she was... and the history she had, and the amount of damage. And really, using sex to blackmail one's stepbrother emotionally, is kind of... low. Maggie Grace: Ian and I have this shall we say, precoital thing... which I personally just think is way too good of an opportunity to just pass up. I mean, come on, we've got to do something, right? It's too good of an opportunity to screw with him. It's going to be fun. Ian Somerhalder: When Maggie Grace chewed up... garlic and onion, and spit it in my mouth? We were making out in a scene and she spit garlic in my mouth while we were rolling. scene shown Maggie Grace: Obviously, a practical joke was coming, and our cast has kind of made practical jokes as well, and I thought, it's our first kiss, God, I've got to do something awful to him. Ian Somerhalder: They totally set me up. I'd left the set. They'd already wrapped. We'd wrapped, they checked everything... I'm walking back, and I hear walkie communication "Bring him back in, the director's got something." Maggie Grace: I didn't want to ruin the actual scene, so I waited until the actual take, and everyone was in on it except him. The whole crew knew, and they were like the whole time, just crossing their fingers. Ian Somerhalder: I thought it was a different take. 'Cause it wasn't this subtle, pensive kiss. It was like a... extravagant tongue motions... thing... and she had released a ball of sauteing garlic and onion into my mouth, and it went underneath, under my tongue, and like, you let a fine wine go down? Smiles Maggie Grace: And now... the guys, like they have guys' poker night, and Jorge's like, "Y'know, Maggie, you can come to guys' poker night if you wear your athletic cup." I'm like, "OK, I'll hang." scenes from "Exodus" shown. Jack Bender: It's all about redemption, and rebirth. departure scenes shown First of all, our production designer, Stephen Storer, designed a beautiful raft, that was made up of things that they really could have made a raft from on the island--different parts, bamboo, various things, twine. production scenes shown ...based on the old catamarans that the Hawaiians used, originally, so it really made sense historically, visually, and the thing floated. They put it on the water, and there were fourteen people on it at one point. So it was a beautifully designed actual sailing craft. When we did the launch, we had to be very careful in scheduling it... that the sea and the tide would be calm enough that we could actually launch it off the beach. Bender shown directing crew on how to move raft so that it looks like it's being pushed by survivors What I did with the actors is that I said, "I'm going to have three cameras shooting... we're gonna do it all handheld so it feels a little spontaneous... and I want you to just say goodbyes to whom you would say goodbye to, and how. directs cast, saying "This is a big, big moment. This is your communication with the outside world. This is also the first parting... so it's got a lot of emotion and a lot of hope in it." Jack Bender: And at first, it was a little tentative... "Hey, see you later." And I said, "Hey, this is a big deal, guys." I said, "This is the first part of your tribe that's both leaving the island, they may not survive the voyage, and they are essential to your survival. Aside from that, these are people you've bonded with. direction to cast: "Don't deny who you are and who you've been to each other. But it's y'know, I don't think it's so much about the reticence of... it's more of... 'This is a moment in our lives, and there's a hope here, and a divide here, and we've got to honor that'." So, we rolled the cameras, and they went for it. And I told the cameras, just follow them... just stay with the people. And at one point, when we launched the raft, I said to our dog trainer, "Does she like the ocean?" and trainer shown with Walt And she said, "Yes, if I'm out there." And I said, "OK, I want him to swim as if he's following the raft." And, God bless the dog, and Kim the trainer, she got out on the raft, and the dog swam out, turned around at one point... "Go back, Vincent, go back!" It was wonderful. So for every dog lover in America, and I include myself high on the list, it's going to be a major moment. shown with Vincent swimming, Walt waving him back J.J. decided, I think rightly so, not to use helicopter shots in the "Pilot" and A) not to expose that much of the island, which I think instinctively you would be doing if you showed all that... also, the whole idea of "Whose point of view is that? Who's flying above that?" You don't want to confuse the audience. But, we did decide, if there was ever a time to use the helicopter, this was the time. The scene actually specifically referred to a moment. They're all looking towards the people on the beach as they're leaving. And the people on the beach are waving at them and they're looking back... and Michael, and Walt, and everyone else on the raft are looking back and saying their goodbyes. And at one point, Michael, the father, turns Walt, the son, around, puts his arm around him and turns him out, away from the past, staring out at the vast horizon, with his arm around him. In other words, silently saying, "It's going to be OK, son. And look to where we're going." And at that point, the helicopter would actually shoot from that side, as the father and son turned around, depending on how close I could get... and circle around, seeing the people on the beach, and come around and end up on a big high shot, as it went out into its uncertain future. shown of "Exodus" describing the Black Rock We get these scripts, like two episodes down the road, you start to think about "How are we going to do this?" and "Can we do a bridge?" and "Can we do this?" So, we start thinking about things, production-wise, how we can realize them. And the Black Rock was one of those things. drawing of The BLack Rock Do we build a foreground miniature? Do we build the entire ship? Do we build part of the ship and have CG do the rest, which is ultimately what we did? We had a cutting point in our shots, and Stephen Storer, the designer and his team built and executed about a quarter of The Black Rock, then CG took care of the rest. Ivan Hayden: What we're going to be doing here is, we have the practical set of The Black Rock, which contains dynamite and our heroes are trying to carefully excavate the dynamite from. Digital effects that we're going to be doing--obviously, the set piece, the practical set piece, ends right here. Black Rock physical prop, which is cut off with blue screen behind it. Visual effects is going to be creating the other 3/5 of the other ship in CG. So, what we're doing is we are setting up blue screens with some green markers for tracking, behind our practical green foliage jungle, to minimize the amount of jungle that we have to paint in later. We placed four tracking balls, which are just glorified tennis balls, on the end of C-stands, so that, as the camera pans across, our empty plate, obviously the empty set, we can track the camera information and therefore, when we get into the computer, we can create our virtual CG model. We can simulate the virtual camera with the real camera so that when we do the move, it will move seamlessly and appear to be one shot. of Arzt running over to dynamite, with Black Rock in the background, a seamless melding of real life and CG effects Jack Bender: There was that aspect to this finale of the characters actually moving the TNT from one place to another with incredible delicacy, having to place it on the hatch, tie it on, set the fuse and light it. where Arzt blows up shown, with special explosion fireworks added in later. Then, scene with hatch being blown up shown. Jack Bender: The last shot we did, which is pretty poetic, was the final shot of the episode, which is Jack and Locke looking in the hatch. Which was done at three in the morning, on our last night of shooting, the crew had wrapped all the big stuff. We moved over to this thing that looked like gallows, it was this big platform building so we could get the camera below. shown with platform And it's that beautiful shot where they look down, and the camera just pulls down into that vast blackness of what they're seeing. Damon Lindelof: Tomorrow, we start Season 2. Start writing Season 2. I can tell you what the season finale is right now. Josh Holloway: background with Naveen Andrews Really?! Good answer. Damon Lindelof: And all I can say is... Sayid, Sawyer. Love affair. Josh Holloway: That's it. We're not waiting. We're not waiting on them. Naveen Andrews: It was there at the beginning. It's going to be consummated. *L Category:DVD *L *L *L Category:Blu-ray